Tuesday, March 11, 2014

#FTE Amsterdam-Volendam

Okay, I promise will continue 1-1 all my europe trip. 

..and now lety's talk about Amsterdam and Volendam!

we're staying at Stayokay Amsterdam Vondelpark. 
we've booked 4 bed private room and bathroom and 2 bed private room and bathroom.
in the end we got 6 bed private room and bathroom and 2 bed private room and bathroom.
for my personal review is they really have nice breakfast for the room a bit gloomy but overall it's 
quite decent hostel. 
compare to other hostel that they allowed the people to smoke marijuana there.
as you know Netherlands allow marijuana and i personally don't like the smell. 
be careful when you choose the hostel in Amsterdam, because my friend really experience the 
hostel there very dirty and have marijuana smell.

I will rate 7/10 for this Stayokay Amsterdam Hostel. 
pros: clean room, no marijuana, bigger space, private bathroom, more variety for breakfast.
cons: a bit far from central area, wifi not reach bedroom. 

btw, don't believe what you see in the picture is not as nice as what the picture tell you! hahaha.
lower down your expectation.
but the most important is clean and no marijuana smell. 

how we go there? 

we're taking train from airport to central station. from central station my suggestion better take taxi.
because we have a lot of luggage
you can also use tram.

below the direction from the hostel website
From Central Station you take tram number 1, 2 or 5 and get off at Leidseplein. Cross the Leidsebrug, on your right you will see the American Hotel. Walk straight ahead towards the Marriott Hotel and turn left. Zandpad is the second street to the right (small street just before the park entrance). Walk straight ahead. From Amstel Station you take tram number 12. You get off at the stop called Van Baerlestraat. Go down the stairs into the Vondelpark. You will see the hostel on your left (follow the signs to the hostel).

when we reach there i have a jetlag. it's still 6pm or 7pm if i'm not wrong but my eye really can't open.

i'm really really really sleepy! we decided to take some rest while we're waiting 2 of 
our friend that from Munich to Amsterdam. 

... and finally we meet both of them. Jeli having her student exchange and ko hendra having his 
DnD in Switzerland ( yea yea yea i know the company sooooo good pay for the whole staff to 
Switzerland just for DnD. envy huh??)
after that we decided to have a dinner nearby our hostel. 

and you know what we get? TADAAAAA. What a view! suddenly, 
we fall in love with this outdoor skate ring!


because we're too tired so we decided back to our hostel and have some rest. 

2nd day ( Volendam Tour)
we have our city tour to Volendam. Volendam is a very nice city! i've been here before in 2010 
and i still falling in love with this city. 
we booked the tour from Viator 
(Zaanse Schans Windmills, Marken and Volendam Half-day trip Amsterdam,
we have a hard time to find the meeting point so we're a bit late! because we couldn't find 
the meeting point, but luckily they wait us!

Oh ya, there's also fighting people nearby our hostel when we about to go. because it's 
weekend so we assume they're fighting because they drunk. 
the police until come and makes the tram delay! that's why we're late because of that 
accident as well. 
 


nothing much about the windmills and marken. They just show us how the windmills operated. 
there's a lot of windmills there. 
Oh ya, They also show us how to make clogs. (Netherlands traditional shoes)
then we continue to Volendam. 

they bring us to the cheese factory! Ohmy, i hate that place! I really hate cheese. they show us how to made cheese and different kind of cheese. 





highlight of the day is WE'RE DOING DUTCH TRADITIONAL COSTUME PHOTO. haohoahoahohaohaohaoahoa. okay picture say a thousand words right, so just enjoy the picts ya. 



we enjoy our volendam tour, but in overall I will just rate 6/10 for this tour. quite boring in windmills and marken. i suggest they give more time in volendam. so we could have more time to enjoy this beautiful city. 

A bit background of Volendam, it's a city that at first it's a fisherman village, but after time goes it's become tourist attraction. so now they popular and a lot of tourist will visit this village. They have nice seafood there! after we finish our tour, we decided to strolling around the central of amsterdam. 

what else that girls will do? Shopping! we shop HnM and one of local brand, which I forget what is it. hahahahaha. we're shop in Leidsestraat , the shopping district there. after that we're strolling around Dam Square. 

another things that we do, we go to the famous RED district in Amsterdam. They say we can see a lot of girls inside the 'aquarium' but too bad we're too early to be in red district! HAHAHA. they said the red district it's come per area as well. Cheap, Mid, Expensive , fat, thin, Chinese, angmoh. it's kinda sad, esp when you are a girls. 

at first we want to have Indonesian Food, but it's so damn expensive! crazy! i can get cheaper food in Indonesia or even in Singapore. so we're just eating any restaurant that we think it's cheap and good! HAHA. then we're so tired and go back to hostel. 

Day 3 ( Amsterdam City tour)
We're strolling around Amsterdam downtown. at first we go to the place where we can find I AM STERDAM sculpture. we wanna take picture there! 



my suggestion better go there early in the morning! because it will be crowded. I know there's a lot of this statue. 
according to mr.google, you can find it here: 
Located at the back of the Rijksmuseum on Museumplein, the large I amsterdam slogan quickly became a city icon and a much sought after photo opportunity. Visitors photograph themselves, in, around and on top of the slogan, and it always manages to inspire the novice photographer.
At more than 2 metres tall, the slogan measures over 23.5 metres wide. In July 2012, a second set of letters was installed at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to welcome visitors to the city and a third set of letters playfully changes location around the city, making appearances at fashion shows, fairs, festivals and other major events. And finally, a scaled-down set of letters can also be found in the courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum.  
Summer 2012 also saw the installation of a red I amsterdam mosaic sofa, located outside the public reception of City Hall (Amstel 1). This was handmade by furniture brand Goed Gemaakt in collaboration with local homeless youths.

we decided to go to the one back of Rijksmuseum because it's just walking distance to our hostel. Fyi, it's sunday so a lot of shops close down. Oh ya, forget to tell you guys in Europe a lot of shop close at Sunday. so don't expect like in asian country. so what we can do when we're there and it's on Sunday? we join the cruise! yeapppp, Cruise in sein river. As you know, amsterdam it's famous with the house in the boat.
 I always adore Amsterdam house. they say the biggest the window is the richer the owner is. you know why? because they bring in all the furniture using the window not the door. that's why all the doors sooooo small yet they have big window. interesting fact right! hahahaha. 

because we still have time before we need to go to London, we decided to go to the our hostel area. we do shopping again! hahaha. but me and Lolla we didn't really shop, we strolling around the area it's kinda interesting city for me. Amsterdam have a lot of bike! most of people there using bike! what an eco city right. but too bad we don't have a chance to biking around Amsterdam and that's how we ended our Amsterdam. 

in overall, I like this city. every city have different culture the only things that I don't really like is just the Marijuana things. it's soooo smelly! another good things about this country we have some language that same as bahasa like 'gratis' 'diskon' etc. 

the things that you must be aware is if they have the sign of 'coffee shop' means you can have your marijuana there. so beware guys but other than that no need to be so worry it's a safe city and yet it's beautiful! :) 

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